Reform frozen out of scrutiny roles, says leader

Reform UK has been frozen out of scrutiny roles at Birmingham City Council despite the party having the most seats, its leader has said.

The party had ruled itself out of controlling the council following May's elections, saying no one was willing to work with it. But Jex Parkin said he had understood Reform would be given the lion's share of seven scrutiny chair positions on the authority, which eventually went to Conservative members.

"Not only were we frozen out of any administration," he said. "We've now been frozen out of the scrutiny roles."

Reform has 23 councillors and gained 20% of the city's vote. Lib Dem Roger Harmer was elected leader on Friday despite the party having 12 seats.

"I think that's incredibly anti-democratic and I think it sets a very concerning precedent if that's the kind of leadership this city's gong to see over the next four years," Parkin said on BBC WM.

While scrutiny committees do not directly control policy, they can "call in" decisions made by the leadership and hold inquiries.

Other parties had repeatedly claimed Reform were "divisive" and had thrown "jabs" at them during the election campaign, the group's leader added, resulting in his conclusion it could not lead the council itself.

"What residents wanted to see was a Reform administration and it's a shame that we couldn't form one because of the immaturity, you may describe it, of the other parties," he said.

The Lib Dems formed a minority administration with the Greens and Better Birmingham Independent Group.

Harmer told BBC Radio WM his appointment was democratic, and that forming coalitions was a "remarkably common thing" in countries where there was no traditional two-party system.

"It is democratic, because it's who got most votes in the chamber on Friday of those people elected by the people of Birmingham," he said.

Parkin claimed it was tricky for Reform to "trust the other parties", and an opposition-led scrutiny would have been most fair for the city.

"We're still the main opposition group, we'll still have a shadow cabinet and we're going to hold this administration to account," he said.

Birmingham was "a great city with a lot of potential, he said.

"I think it's going to need strong accountability, it's going to need strong leadership.

I'm not sure if we're going to see that in the short term, but I think longer term I certainly back Birmingham to get back to its best."

He added he would support an end to the city's bin strike as something "all parties could agree on".

Harmer said: "The public gave them 20% of the vote, 80% of people didn't vote Reform. That's the nature of democracy.

"You put together an administration that can win support in the chamber, that's what we did on Friday.

"We all saw the votes being cast, they didn't win that. In fact one of their members voted for me."

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